Marco Rubio is on the short list of Republican presidential contenders for 2016. Of course, that’s a long way away, so who knows if he remains on the short list.

So Rubio’s a target even more so than in the past couple of years. Every question in every interview is a potential land mine. There can be no off-the-cuff remarks.

The motus operandi will be to “crazy” him, the long-standing tactic used against Republicans and particularly people like Rubio who sprang from the Tea Party movement (something he doesn’t wear on his sleeve very much) or who occupy that most reviled place in the mainstream media, religious Christians.

There’s one area where Democrats are really far ahead of Republicans right now. Science and technology, no. It’s doing this thing that Democrats failed to do in 2000, to stop George W. Bush, which is really, really early on using the left-wing Freak Show to define anyone who’s thinking of running for President, as quickly as possible, in negative terms on Twitter, on cable, on the Internet. They’re all over this Rubio thing because they want to control his image in a negative way and they did it this cycle too. They went after Romney early, it really hurt him. And they’re doing it now. And, you know, as a matter of just pure politics, it’s very effective because Rubio’s not full-time thinking about running for president. He’s out there dabbling but people on the Left will just be defining anyone who looks like they might be strong in four years.

As an aside, note how at the end they push Chris Christie. He will be the left-wing’s stalking horse, until they ruthlessly take him down once he is the last man standing. But I digress.

Daniel Engber at Slate notes that Rubio’s answer was almost precisely the answer Obama gave when running for President in 2008:

Q: Senator, if one of your daughters asked you—and maybe they already have—“Daddy, did god really create the world in 6 days?,” what would you say?

A: What I’ve said to them is that I believe that God created the universe and that the six days in the Bible may not be six days as we understand it … it may not be 24-hour days, and that’s what I believe. I know there’s always a debate between those who read the Bible literally and those who don’t, and I think it’s a legitimate debate within the Christian community of which I’m a part. My belief is that the story that the Bible tells about God creating this magnificent Earth on which we live—that is essentially true, that is fundamentally true. Now, whether it happened exactly as we might understand it reading the text of the Bible: That, I don’t presume to know.

It will not matter. There are two standards, one for “thoughtful” Democrats and one for “crazy” Republicans.

Any Republican or conservative or Tea Party supporter who dumps on Palin in any way over the Tucson shooting or her defense of herself should just stop talking now.

It does not matter whether you support Palin for President, whether you think she is electable, or even whether you like her. This is not about Palin, it is about the mainstream media’s desire to have Barack Obama re-elected at any cost and to take down any Republican candidate who stands in the way….

If Palin is taken down politically over the Tucson shooting, there is not a single Republican candidate who can survive the coming onslaught.

And so it is with the attempt to crazy Marco Rubio.

I don’t know whether I would support him, it’s too early for that. But I do know that I will defend him against the crazy attempts to crazy him, because he is just the test case … for the media to elect a Democrat in 2016.

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With that one answer, Rubio is toast. From now until he is defeated in either the primary or the general election we will hear over and over and over and over that he believes the earth was created in seven days . It will be a great skit on SNL, and the critical voting group, the younger folks, will believe it from that source. These GOP “hopefuls” have to stop falling into the media traps that are set. The part of his answer asking how the age of the earth relates to budget woes was the good part, but that will never be heard again.

Too bad…I like Rubio a lot, but we need a winner next time around and he just blew it.

Really? Not a single vote has been cast, the primaries are more than three years away, and Rubio has not even declared, yet his Presidential ambitions are over already?

The media will demonize and dehumanize any candidate who does not agree with their secular, totalitarian worldview. This is standard operating procedure. Being willing to give up on Rubio now is a little like an army deciding to surrender after the enemy has fired a single shot at them.

For the record, I am somewhat lukewarm towards Rubio. I like his policies on taxes and spending, but his calls for a GOP version of the DREAM act are a raging insult to legal immigrants like my wife. Pandering to the La Raza element in the Hispanic community in the hopes of winning a few of the open-border crowd’s votes is a fool’s errand.

Agreeing that this is a calculated tactic against a potential candidate [one that I have not taken sides about], you are missing a key point.

The Democrats showed in this election that they have perfected expanding the margin of fraud beyond what can be made up by normal electoral means. This is an advantage that they will not give up. So what basis is there to believe that there will be an honest election in 2014 or 2016? There will be elections, but they will be for show, with the vote margins determined months before the polls open.

The left always descends to the level of the school yard bully. As with all bullies the way to beat them is by confronting them but not on their own terms. You turn their questions back on them and most of all you know when to stop talking so they look petty, vindictive and stupid. And yes, for now we have to do it on their turf because so many low information voters only visit left leaning venues.

If you have other ideas let’s hear them. Or do you only propose to criticize and cavil as you are wont to do?

I note with satisfaction that my observations have met with “dislikes”, but not much (or any) rational objections to them.

Asking disquieting questions is ONE purpose of being a critical thinker.

While I totally agree with the Prof’s post, his powers of prediction are a little inflated here. This is a predictable as the Sun rising in the East. Since at least Eisenhower, this is what the Collective has done (he was a lazy old boob). Goldwater was a nutbag warmonger who would incinerate the earth in a nuclear war. Reagan was an amiable dope, hater of the puuuuuurrrr, another warmonger, etc.

Anything any conservative (or conservative-supported) candidate says…ANY-flucking-WHERE…will be turned into fodder for the twisted narrative. Even in supposedly private, off-record venues.

Going on Letterman’s show is somehow going to be a net “good”? Explain that to me.

I suggest that the idea of an alternate cultural media would be good. I dunno if it is a panacea, but it couldn’t hurt.

Given what Limbaugh said yesterday about something on the order of 90% of VOTERS believing that the wealthy paid income tax at the same or lower rate as “middle-class” Americans, I would say we’re screwed…good and hard. And I’m an optimist.

It isn’t like the facts are hard to come by, or like nobody is stating them both clearly and compellingly. It appears only rational to conclude people don’t care enough to learn them. This, of course, is a hard thing for me to say, since I do believe people can govern themselves.

I am coming to the notion that it has to be beaten into them by the imposition of consequence. The “let it burn” position. Or, alternatively, that we have to say good-bye to the union.

It doesn’t matter anymore whether GQ or anything else is a low impact outlet. How obscure was the Akin radio interview that went viral within minutes after the left decided the time was right to destroy?

A second and probably more important factor is what the left does with any small snippet of media when they take it via some nefarious underground path directly to their army of voting zombies. It was one thing when the left controlled the narrative and we had to fight above ground to make points. It is another entirely when we have no real path to even neutralize damage being done to our candidates.

IMO, College Insurrection is going to be invaluable over the next four years. Learning what information is seeping onto the youngest most “plugged-in” voters is critical.

I read his comments on Palin, but it doesn’t answer the question of how Rubio got on that list for 2016. My question goes to how we are manipulated. Btw, Rubio is not on my 2016 list because I have no 2016 list.

Rubio. He did the Esquire interview and started touring Iowa not to serve his Florida constituents. This while the entire country is still reeling from an election less than two weeks old. The winners haven’t been sworn in yet.

The whole discussion here is silly. If Rubio can’t come back from this, after Gov. Clinton said he smoked pot but didn’t inhale, he should lose.

Delivering stupidity is the the media’s stock in trade. Conservatives expect Democrats to say stupid things, so take no umbrage. The media doesn’t care about who said something stupid, if it sells. The narrative that the media picks on conservatives is silly. The media picks on anyone who puts himself up front for attention, whether they are Kardashians or politicians.

The supposed “Palinization” of Rubio is silly. Charles Krauthammer was saying Palin was unqualified to be president, and therefore vice president, not because of how she responded to “gotcha” questions, but because he thought she had a limited understanding of the issues. That’s not liberal bias. If Rubio can’t satisfy his conservatives, gaffs and all, don’t blame a shallow media. People can understand what the message is. This whole name the messenger business always had the next step of blaming the voters, so don’t want to live in a democracy.

Rubio volunteered for public ridicule when he signed up for public attention and the possibility of political power.

Your comments about the crazy-ing of Rubio are spot on, although I would instead call it the Palinization of Rubio.

To me, it is one thing if you don’t want to vote for Palin (or Gingrich, or Romney, or Santorum) because you disagree with their proposed policies, or think they won’t make a good President. It’s quite another to decide this-or-that candidate is “unelectable” and refuse to support them because of that. The latter is a case of giving the media unlimited veto power over your candidate.

Regardless of who the candidate is conservatives should ask themselves this question: is a candidate the media claims is unelectable actually unelectable for a real reason (like they are felons or mentally unbalanced or have some major skeletons)? If the answer is no, then work for that candidate and let someone else worry about electability. As the saying goes: the time is always right to do what is right.

For me this is further evidence that the path forward for non-progressives is for the ‘alternative’ media like radio, the Internet sites, and the blogosphere (differentiating pure opinion from news/opinion mixes) to become more public via the actual ‘mainstream’ sources. Just as the left wants to marginalize and ‘define’ any opponents on the right, so they have aggressively defined the ‘alternative’ media. I keep saying ‘alternative’ because the ‘mainstream’ media gets accepted as the only status quo.

More voices need to go into the belly of the beast. The best current example may be S.E. Cupp and her brave role in positioning the minority, disparaged opinion on some MSNBC program. I never watch, but have seen some clips that inspire me. The ‘alternative’ voices must get more exposure outside of the ‘alternative’ universe. The Ben Shapiros and Larry O’Connors at Breitbart, Greg Gutfelds and Kimberly Guilfoyles from Fox, the Dan Riehls and Prof. Jacobsons of the Internet world all have proven they are very capable and sometime brilliant representatives of the ‘alternative’ view (I say with some cynicism) and taking the fire to make their points and views known. Those voices are not just examples of smart/erudite/educated speakers, but they have been in the belly of the beast in their work for while and know the game very well. Otherwise the ‘mainstream’ will continue to reinforce the one-sided attacks from the professional left. As much as non-progressives enjoy the Peggy Noonans and George Wills of the world (or maybe even the Tucker Carlsons given his long history in the public’s eye?), they are not the best candidates for speaking to or inspiring new converts through reasoned and rational thoughts. It will take new voices, in my opinion.

Just as the left has successfully attacked individuals and painted their adversaries as kooks and freaks and extremists and raaaaaaacists, so they have left the impression with many that the ‘alternative’ media is just more of the same. It will take more than trying to recruit eyes to websites to change that, I believe.

I don’t either and I’m of Mexican descent. Let me say something, the Mexican population isn’t going to fawn over Rubio, he is Cuban. Though Hispanics are grouped together they are different and see these differences. If the GOP thinks Rubio would be a way to gain Hispanics, well, I wouldn’t bet on it.

The more I read conservative articles the more I see what is needed . . . . Certo!

It is not a test; it is a strategy that works ever single freakin’ time! One thing the democrats know and the one thing that republicans refuse to accept is that Ned Flanders will never be elected. The democrats throw out the bait, republicans dive on it. We get our republican candidates to answer whether they believe in evolution, flat earth; the earth is the center of the universe….every world to the bible…..yadda yadda yadda.

We lose every time. We want the Pat Robertson’s and the Billy Grahams to have chosen which wacky theory is right. Meanwhile the democrats sit back, *point* and make fun of the republicans. Harry Reid won Nevada because he got religious wacko Sharon Angle to win the primaries. We’ll put Bobby Jindal up who pushed to have creationism (aka alternate theories) taught as science in Louisiana. One third of the republicans will support him, and maybe even push his past the primaries where he gets destroyed by the same strategy.

There is only one winning strategy. To say that religion is not part of the political platform, and questions regarding religion aren’t part of the political dialogue.

And what? Refuse to answer this question, because it’s not about politics?! It’s a profile. It’s not about politics. Rap music has nothing to do with politics either; once you answer questions about that, how can you refuse to answer this one? He had to answer it, and he did so about as perfectly as he could — in almost exactly the same way that 0bama did. So what is the problem? We can’t be panicking and sending the message that his answer was crazy and embarrassing; we should be taking it for the good answer it is, and challenging those calling it crazy to say exactly why it’s crazy, and how it’s different from 0bama’s answer. The leftie media assume that everyone agrees with them on this, but it’s not true.

So I guess this means we are now supposed to accept the Obama administration’s argument that the 1st Amendment is about the freedom to worship rather than the free exercise of religion? That only religious values that support the leftist agenda are valid outside the church doors? That is exactly where your line of argument takes us- and not just for those inconvenient Christians. If that is what it takes to win an election why even bother? We are no longer a free people.

We know what questions are going to get asked, and then when they do, our candidate goes….”well…uhhh, well…geee…well….well..uuuhhh….well…if I answer A. I piss off 1/3 of the republicans and if I answer B I piss of the different 1/3 so I’ll tap dance for 5 minutes ….’mmm kay?”

You are right on in your assessments. It’s about dividing Dems, the government rich (elites) that live around the DC area and the government poor (on welfare/food stamps) – We are not going to win the mainstream media war by playing by their rules.

We need to watergate them, do funny tell all about journalist and their incestuous relationships with politicians and those who work for them as many of them do. We need to talk about fashion, culture, music, etc while using satire.

I’m working on website that will do this along with reaching out to our Spanish speaking audience out there.

It is time to mock. Read Swift and Pope, they were the masters. The left has no sense of humor about itself.

We need to make ourselves relevant – as conservatives we need to shun the old playbook and think out of the box and do it with humor and joy.

Huffington Post uses soft porn to gain traffic – just tells you how low they go (war on women).

I was need deep in anger over this election. I keep reading about our greatest generation as stamped by Brokaw – I respect those who lived during the Depression and fought in WWII, but I disagree. They spoiled their children to be the baby-boomers.

I see their parents, those who fought in WWI as the greatest generation. They raised the children to survive the Depression and fought in WWII. Too bad their parentage didn’t pass on to their grandchildren.

Let us know when it’s up and running. It might be the answer and certainly can’t hurt. Suerte!!! and if nothing else, we’ll all be there fighting the good fight and playing the game, but smarter and hopefully turning the tables!!!

Here’s an idea. The fact is almost no one can live with a camera in their face all the time and not look like an idiot at times. It’s just that whenever a Republican does it the zone gets flooded with the image and when a Democrat does it the film is buried away and forgotten. Case in point. Then Speaker Pelosi once noted on national TV that she was against fossil fuels but all for alternative energy such as natural gas.

Let’s follow around some icons of the left, tape all their comments and then edit together all the stupid, tongue tied, slack jawed, knuckle dragging moments. Then put together a collection of bloopers reels. They show one of ours in a weak moment, we show three of theirs looking like even bigger idiots. Let them call us racist. The fact is the real morons are the ones the media has spent decades protecting from the light of day.

You flatter yourself. The kind of criticism you offer is hardly profound, disquieting or based upon a realistic view of the world. We have to fight our political battles with the electorate and the media as it is, not as we want it be at some future date. What you counsel is akin to packing up the toys and going home because that will fix those other people. Never mind that it means giving the other side a string of future victories by default and pretty much defines the term sore loser.

It is not possible to dispel the image of being out of touch by refusing the engage with popular culture. Until conservatives can create alternative venues that involves more than simply preaching to our own little set of choirs we have to take the media as we find it. Nor are we ever going to win people over by treating them with the disdain that flows so freely from many. I have seldom agreed with what the voters do on election day. But when I look at it in terms of the information they had available at the time the results are seldom irrational.

“We have to fight our political battles with the electorate and the media as it is, not as we want it be at some future date.”

Duh. It is you who harbor unsupported wishful dreams about the magic of going on The View.

“What you counsel is akin to packing up the toys and going home because that will fix those other people.”

This is false. Simply. False.

What I HAVE done is point out the obvious reality that you keep ignoring (i.e., “we just have to point out their morons”…which is done EVERY DAY).

I HAVE suggested we need to offer an alternate cultural media, in conjunction with out alternation press and commentary. I can’t predict how that will work, or IF it would change much. Couldn’t hurt, I said.

I have also OBSERVED we are not being effective, and presented the metrics that show it. You ignore those, too.

I have opined that maybe it is time to let the cause >>> effect mechanisms play out. People will learn…or not…from their collision with reality.

You’ve nailed it, Professor. What annoys me no end is that no one else in the GOP seems to see what is going on, that the MSM is the enemy, and to develop strategies to combat them. Where are our think tanks? Do we have any of the sort that study carefully the Left’s tactics and advise not only potential candidates, but any Senator or Representative in their public responses to these “gotcha-we’re-setting-the-narrative” type questions? Until we do that, we’re going to get ambushed all the time, every time, and we’ll be ruminating once again how it all went wrong.

Thank you for bringing that Vichy agreement out. I did not know about it. Next week is our County Republican Central Committee meeting, and we are largely a TEA Party county. There will be annotated copies of that court decree on hand. I am hoping for organic waste to meet rotating airfoil.

My best case scenario for the election was for Romney to beat the Democrats bad enough to make them go in a corner and … well they would be occupied for a while. Then, inevitably when Romney sided with the Institutionals on one make or break issue or another; that the TEA Party/Patriot movement would split off and it would be a 3 way fight amongst relatively equal strength opponents.

Now with Potemkin elections and an Institutional Republican Party that collaborates with this country’s enemies; there is no reason for a Republican Party to exist.

You’re quite welcome, and please, by all means, copy it and spread it as far and wide as you can. I didn’t know about it either and I thought it was curious that the GOP was so silent about the vote totals in certain precincts and wondered why they didn’t challenge them. Then I read that article. My blood pressure has yet to go back to normal.

Interestingly enough, your remark about a third, Tea Party-oriented national party was mentioned in a comments section — don’t remember where — but the upshot of it was that if there were a strong national third party, it would render that court decision moot because, hey … it only applies to the GOP.

You’re also correct in identifying something I’ve long suspected myself — there are certain establishment Republicans who obviously have a stake in the power structure remaining as it is, and in that respect, they are no better than the Dems. I wonder why they don’t just drop all the pretenses and call themselves Dems in any case.

Q: Senator, if one of your daughters asked you—and maybe they already have—“Daddy, did god really create the world in 6 days?,” what would you say?

A: What I’ve said to them is that I believe that God created the universe and that the six days in the Bible may not be six days as we understand it … it may not be 24-hour days, and that’s what I believe. I know there’s always a debate between those who read the Bible literally and those who don’t, and I think it’s a legitimate debate within the Christian community of which I’m a part. My belief is that the story that the Bible tells about God creating this magnificent Earth on which we live—that is essentially true, that is fundamentally true. Now, whether it happened exactly as we might understand it reading the text of the Bible: That, I don’t presume to know.

Glad you caught that. I remember that well because I live in a family that discusses these things every day seemingly. I brought it up today at breakfast noting that the biggest illogic is that we are prepared to give Person A ‘ context ‘ & hound Person B.

My advice is for Senators to do their JOB. & represent their state’sbest interest. it is not about them.

For this& other Gotcha questions -just refer to state education/whatever policy.

It was pure gold for LBJ, who used Schorr’s slander to portray Goldwater as a war-mongering extremist. LBJ’s campaign cut one of the most iconic political TV commercials of all time, showing an innocent little girl playing in a field with a daisy as a nuclear mushroom cloud bursts.

Of course, the viewer is led to believe that the imaginary war-mongering, neo-nazi loving Goldwater created by Schorr would push us into nuclear war. By the time Goldwater delivered his nomination speech, he’d been called an “extremist” so much that he used it in a line in the speech when he said, “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice”.

I saw this coming for a long time. First it was Quayle, then it was George W Bush, then it was Palin. They’ve done it to an extent with Allen West, and now they’re moving on to Rubio. We need to have candidates for the Senate (Akin and Mourdock) as well as the Presidency who have a grasp on how to aim and get their message through the media, and being sly to the Democrats and their lapdog allies in the Press.

Rubio is demonstrating a good level of what we need. Whether he is the right, let alone viable candidate for 2016 has yet to be determined. I wouldn’t count Palin out either, although it is quite likely she missed her window for the Presidency.

[…] Time and time again, Senator Rubio is able to re-frame the argument. He’s at his best when taking conservative stereotypes and explaining them with clear and positive analysis. The left knows this all too well, hence they’re working overtime now to make Senator Rubio appear “crazy:” […]

Such questions are meaningless and an honest answer – even if accepted without criticism – is similarly meaningless. So why offer any answer? A good response: “I think that you or one of you colleagues asked President Obama that question. I agree with his answer.”

Hey Republicans/Conservatives!! Start treating the Lame stream media as the ENEMY!!! Be very adversarial in any interview. Call a stupid question, a stupid question!! Refuse to answer an inane off topic question. If a reporter asks a stupid question, say “next question” and go on to another reporter. Refuse to have idiot lefty journalists as moderators – pick ten decent journalists and tell the demo-rats to pick three from the list for moderators. Grant interviews to FOX news, Mark Levin, Bill O’Reilly, Neil Covuto, etc., etc – you know the media will have to cover them if you’re restricting their access – and NO GOTCHA QUESTIONS!! It’s long past time the Repubs stop being the stupid party, stop seeking the lame stream medias adoration and turn this into the bloody fight it needs to be! Breitbart lives!!!